Words.
Weiyang Palace.
"Xiao He's granddaughter?"
Luo Xin had originally felt that they should not choose either the Marquis of Zàn or Marquis Liu, but as he entered the palace, he suddenly realized that both men were already very old.
Xiao He probably would not survive the winter, and Zhang Liang probably only had a year or two left. As long as Lü Zhi died after these two, the so-called Marquis of Zàn's Residence and Marquis Liu's Residence would never amount to much.
Lü Zhi looked at Luo Xin in some bewilderment. The first requirement in choosing an empress was that her family could not be too powerful. The Marquis of Zàn was a Thorough Marquis with ten thousand households. If he became the emperor's grandfather-in-law, his influence would be far too great.
Luo Xin chuckled. "The second and third generations of the Xiao Clan are all good for nothing. Once Xiao He dies, the Marquis of Zàn's Residence will have only the influence of friends, relatives, and old associates left. Its own strength will plummet a thousand fathoms. It meets our criteria perfectly."
Only then did Lü Zhi understand. "The same reasoning applies to Marquis Liu's Residence, doesn't it?"
Luo Xin nodded. "But Marquis Liu's Residence ranks behind the Marquis of Zàn's Residence. Xiao He is clearly on the verge of death, while Zhang Liang's situation is less certain. Still, it should only be a year or two. He lived through the First Emperor's era. He is very old."
Lü Zhi looked at the other two families as well. Both were upper-middle-ranking Thorough Marquis households, the sort whose individual abilities were not particularly strong, but whose tangled networks of connections could mobilize considerable power. The chief aim was to unite the meritorious officials around the emperor without allowing a